


Infinite Road

by AnnaCipactli12



Category: The Tudors (TV), Twilight Zone
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22541455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaCipactli12/pseuds/AnnaCipactli12
Summary: Mary Tudor is nearing the end of her journey but as one mysterious figure notes, this isn't the end. Opening herself to the unknown and embracing the destiny she had always ran away from, Mary let go of her fears and walked into the fifth dimension, where all realities become one -where nothing is impossible. A place known as the Twilight Zone.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Infinite Road

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on the season one finale of Jordan Peele's remake of the original "Twilight Zone." I had mixed feelings about the show but I loved that last bit of the episode "Blurryman."

There is a fifth dimension, beyond our imagination. When we are young, we can see it. In our dreams, in our hearts, and through our expressed desires. But between myth and reality there lies the middle ground that every teenager dreads to thread. The point in time where we come to realize that the time to leave childhood things behind has come. We either accept it, becoming bitter, self-hating tools of the rapacious courtiers who turn His Majesty’s interest away from the common good, or deny it and become social pariahs?

Mary Tudor was not born to be a Queen. As she lay in her bed, refusing to get up, she thought about everything that had transpired that had led her to this point.

“No,” she maintained, unable to come to grasp with the truth. Time had not been kind to her. Her bloated stomach, her delicate condition, her plotting sister, and broken marriage were more than any woman could handle, let alone the first woman to rule Britain. She chuckled as she thought about how her mother had comforted her after one of her friends died because of the sweat. “None of this is true. You said that everything would be fine. That every day was a gift. I was your gift from God. He has big plans for you.”

All lies. A cruel twist of fate had landed her here. A broken woman with nothing going for her except for two friends. But even they had stopped having faith in her.

This is the story of the unhappiest woman in Christendom. How different her reign would have been if her father had never divorced her mother? If Catherine of Aragon had more than one child, one of them a boy? Would she still be Queen and if so, would she be hailed as savior rather than condemned by half of the country?

We will never know. No amount of what-ifs can bring her the happiness that has been denied to her. Mary knows this and it is for this reason that she refuses to listen to that voice in her head that’s served as her spiritual guide since she was a child. Yet her obstinacy and certainty have been shattered by the hopelessness that has been brought by her sister and husband’s betrayal.

“Why do you seek to torment me?” Mary attempted to shut down the voice in her head through prayer but that no longer worked.

“You can’t stop the rain from washing you clean of your unhappiness. You know what your destiny is –where you belong. You’ve had many chances to escape this country, to force your hand on your enemies but you’ve always backed down in the end. I think we both know why.”

Mary shook her head vigorously. Leave!

A dry chuckle escaped her stalker’s lips. It appeared to her in the guise of her mother.

Something wasn’t right. The way it stood, looked at her. She instantly knew it wasn’t the voice in her head. It was something else. Or rather, someone else.

“Is that any way to respond to your mother?”

“You are not my mother.”

“No? Every voice you’ve ever heard, my sweet Mary. Me. I am every doubt, every fear, keeping you from being happy because happiness is not queens should aspire to. Our greatest gift is one of misery and suffering. To humble ourselves before the Lord so no one else besides Him can hurt us. That should be enough but you never wanted to listen to what I say. Everything you did was for your own benefit. You never cared about the people but you were so good at fooling everyone into thinking you do."

"Stop it!"

"Blame everyone all you want. You have no one to blame but yourself." Catherine said, her tone filled with scorn. Her cold smile showed cruel bemusement at the thing standing before her that used to be her daughter. 

"Mirror, mirror on the wal who's the fairest one of wall? Is it the girl who is always looking at herself in the mirror when she should be studying or the one-"

"God curse you and your demon ilk!" Mary's curses only encouraged the spectre wearing her mother's face. "You are not her." She chanted, closing her eyes, and covering her ears to her voice. “You are not my mother!”

“Yell all you want, dear. Deep down you know what I am.”

Mary continued to yell until finally, when she opened her eyes, the specter was gone. In its stead was none other than an odd dressed man with a gay smile, staring directly at her.

“You are not the first one to go through the trespass of immortality.”

“Trespass? But … am I dead?”

With a serious tone, still grinning at her, he said, “I think you know what is going to happen next. It is a simple matter of accepting the truth. Truth, Mary. The daughter of time. You are time’s daughter. I am here to take you home.”

“So I am dead.”

“Not yet but you will be soon. You can choose to take my hand and your suffering will be spared. Or die a painful death. Either way, I will be here waiting for you to join me.”

Mary did not know what to say. A painful pang hit her in her midsection. “All this can be avoided, Mary. One word and you will be safe and sound.”

“Where?” Mary asked. Was this another cruel twist of fate where it turns out the Protestants were right and I was the heretic and they the faithful ones?

But once again, Mary’s assertions were proven wrong. The man’s smile turned from bemused grin to a kind smile. His elegant tone softened. “You know where.”

“No, that’s not possible. I was just a child. I dreamed all sorts of idiocies. Things that children dream because they let their imagination fly.”

“How wrong you are. Have you forgotten when I took you away from your nightmares and showed you galaxies and worlds beyond anything anyone could fathom?” Mary nodded. Tears fell from her eyes. Her world was coming apart and there was nothing and no one to comfort her but a distant childhood memory of something that wasn’t even real.

“Tell me, why me?”

“Terrible things are done in the name of justice, faith and at times, when mixed with personal gain, they lead to graver injustices than the ones we mean to correct. Those were the first words you told me when I took you through one of the ravaged worlds.”

“Those were dreams. I was a precocious child, a spoiled-“

“You were anything but spoiled. Always curious, always eager to please. Now you have the chance to embark on the greatest journey of all, with a long time traveler who’s been watching over you.”

“It’s not real.”

“You mistook me for a demon. You conjured all kinds of spells against me.”

“I prayed you’d go away.”

“And when I didn’t, you still refused my help. When you got tried of trying, you ignored me. I came back but you still ignored me until I became a shadow.”

“Why don’t you leave me alone? I am not meant to be happy. Everything I have has been taken away from me and I am not what I once was.”

“You are not the architect of your misery but you did keep the door open for your enemies to keep unloading on you." Bells began to rang. They were accompanied by the protests of heretics and Catholics alike, screaming murder.

"They are waiting for their Queen to die to crown their new messiah. Once it was my mother whom they worshiped then it was me. I tried so hard to be a good Queen. Charles disposed of enemies like they were flies, my father hung many and yet I am the one who is branded a tyrant."

"Every monarch has blood on his or her hands." He said. "You are not without fault and that is what makes you like everyone else but there is a place where you can be what you were always meant to be. It is the place where the humanity's ugly side can't hurt you anymore."

For the first time in two decades, Mary considered what he was saying. Decidedly, letting go of fear, Mary willed herself out of bed and took his hand.

She no longer asked rhetorical questions. The type of journey she was about to take was one that wasn't meant for many people. After all the troubles and obstacles she'd been plagued with, it felt all too easy. _One small step was all that was required of me and I wouldn't have had to gone through all this trouble. But it is in suffering that we find who we truly are._

She was ready to spend the rest of eternity figuring out whatever it was she needed to figure out. Life's mysteries, fate; she thought too much about these things in her adult life, forgetting that it is the thrill of the journey that had kept her going.

"We have a long road ahead of us, there's no time to waste." He said. Mary smiled back at him. She was unrecognizable from the sleeping figure in the bed. She sensed the change in her but she didn't care much about it. Everything that had plagued her seemed so trivial now. Ready to walk the path she was always meant to walk, she embraced that void that she had buried deep within her soul to walk into the unknown.

* * *

Rod Serling had introduced millions of viewers ot a world fulled of endless possibilities. Now, he had another companion with him. One who'd be privy to the many realities that mankind was so eager to shut their eyes and ears to.

As the door before them was opened, the silent cries of Queen Mary's maids (upon discovering their mistress' silent for, resting peacefully at last) and the protetsts from outside, became mute. The vacuum of space, neither cold nor warm, was filled with colors the human eye had never witnessed before. A light, brighter than the sun's rays engulfed them.

Mary let go of her fears and walked into the fifth dimension, where all realities become one -where nothing is impossible. A place known as the Twilight Zone


End file.
